Thomas
Note: This article will only talk about the US version of seasons 1-15, as those were the only seasons of the show that aired on Sprout Thomas & Friends 'is a British-American children's television series created by Britt Allcroft. It is an adaptation of ''The Railway Series by the Reverend W. Awdry. Plot The show revolves around The Island Of Sodor, a fictional British island with lots of railway lines, including the main one, the North Western Railway, where Thomas The Tank Engine, the #1 engine, and his best friends Percy, James, Gordon, Henry, Edward, Emily, and Toby work. They work under the guardianship of Sir Topham Hatt. Other characters include Devious Diesel, Thomas' rival, Bertie the Bus, Harold the Helicopter, and others. In earlier seasons, all the vehicles were scale models and the humans and animals were wooden figurines. In season 12, the engines' faces were rendered in CGI, as well as the humans and animals. Starting with the 2009 feature film Hero Of The Rails, the entire show is rendered in CGI. The stories are told via a narrator (George Carlin in seasons 1-4, Alec Baldwin in seasons 5-6, and Michael Brandon in seasons 7-15). Characters *'''Thomas the Tank Engine (voiced by Martin Sherman) is a LB&SCR E2 class tank engine who is the #1 engine on the North Western Railway, and the star of the show. He's a cheeky little engine with six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler, and a short stumpy dome. He can be fussy and over-eager, often taking on jobs that are best left to bigger and stronger engines. *'Edward the Blue Engine' (voiced by William Hope) is a Sharp, Stewart and Co. "Larger Seagull" K2 Class mixed-traffic tender engine who is the #2 engine on the North Western Railway. He is one of the oldest engines on Sodor, and is noted for being the kindest and wisest character in the series. Sometimes, the big engines pick on him for his age, but Edward always proves them wrong by being Really Useful. *'Henry the Green Engine' (voiced by Kerry Shale) is a LMS Stanier Class 5 "Black Five" mixed-traffic tender engine who is the #3 engine on the North Western Railway. Henry's personality has greatly changed throughout the series. In the classic series, he was rather grumpy, stubborn, and rude, but in season 8, he received a personality overhaul and became a neurotic, gentle, and nature-loving engine. Henry was originally a botched prototype of a LNER Gresley A1 and LNER C1 hybrid engine, but after receiving special Welsh coal and having an accident while pulling the Flying Kipper, he received a rebuild. *'Gordon the Big Engine' (voiced by Kerry Shale) is a LNER A3 Pacific express tender engine who is the #4 engine on the North Western Railway. Gordon pulls the express and is rather proud of the fact, and can be boastful and arrogant in regards to his strength, speed, and size. Although he has a slight rivalry with Thomas, sometimes they help each other out, like in the episodes "Down The Mine" and "Thomas Meets The Queen". *'James the Red Engine' (voiced by Kerry Shale) is a L&YR Class 28 mixed-traffic tender engine who is the #5 engine on the North Western Railway. James used to have black paint, but after he crashed into a cow field, he received red paint. James considers himself to be a Really Splendid Engine, especially due to his red paint, and hates pulling trucks. James is extremely arrogant and vain, yet means well (most of the time) and is a hard worker. *'Percy the Small Engine '(voiced by Martin Sherman) is an Avonside Saddle Tank engine who is the #6 engine on the North Western Railway. Percy is very kind and empathetic, and believes the best of everyone. However, he is shown to be naive from time to time, as well as cheeky. His best friend is Thomas, and even though they have accidents sometimes, they still care for each other. Percy's most favorite job is to pull the mail train. *'Toby the Tram Engine '(voiced by William Hope) is a GER class C53 tram engine who is the #7 engine on the North Western Railway. Toby is very wise due to his old age, and is noted for his intelligence and kindness. Toby became meeker and more worrisome in later seasons, being skittish when faced with daunting tasks. *'Emily the Stirling Engine' (voiced by Jules de Jongh) is a GNR G3 Stirling Single engine who does not have a number and works on the North Western Railway. Emily is the only female member of the Steam Team, and acts as a compassionate motherly figure towards her friends. However, starting in season 8, Emily became rather bossy and rude. These personality changes were reverted during the switch to CGI, as Emily has returned to her old self. *'Sir Topham Hatt' (voiced by Kerry Shale) is the most prominent human in the series, and is the manager of the North Western Railway. He acts a fatherly figure to the engines. Sir Topham Hatt was very strict in earlier episodes, but later episodes show a comedic side to him, especially in the episode "Lady Hatt's Birthday Party". History on Sprout The show premiered on September 26, 2005, along with several other shows, to celebrate the launch of the Sprout network. Prior to that, they released it on Comcast On-Demand. They aired most of the entire classic series (seasons 1-7) as individual episodes (unlike episodes of most other television shows, the classic episodes of Thomas lasted 4 minutes and 30 seconds), with restored high-definition versions of the first four seasons, for the first time in the US. Thomas and a lot of shows stopped airing on Sprout on September 26, 2015 because NBC Universal/Comcast took full control of the channel and dropped PBS Kids from their branding, the channel is now called Universal Kids. Thomas had its very own Sprout Diner snack called Thomas' Club Car Sandwich. Apart from regular television episodes, Thomas also has several movies. Thomas and the Magic Railroad has aired on 3rd July and 11th July 2015 and was fitted as a cropped widescreen image. The Great Discovery aired on June 5 and 6, 2010. Hero of the Rails aired back-to-back with a special feature called The Birthday Express (a DVD consisting of the episodes "Percy's Parcel", "Double Trouble", "The Man In The Hills", and "The Party Surprise") to celebrate Thomas' birthday. Misty Island Rescue premiered on August 20, 2011. That special usually aired in a double feature with Day of the Diesels, which premiered on August 24, 2011 and also aired on September 5, 2011. Both of these dates were before its official DVD release in the United States. Trivia * When Season 11 aired on PBS Kids Sprout, several episodes used the intros from the eighth or twelfth seasons. * On airings of the episode "James Goes Buzz Buzz", the UK title ("Buzz, Buzz") was used. * In airings of "Trouble For Thomas", the music at the end is played twice. * In the Sprout broadcast of "Thomas' Christmas Party", around the time the engines save Mrs. Kyndley and the time Thomas gets back to the sheds, the narration is dramatically out of sync. * In airings of "Henry And The Elephant", the original opening and end credits are used. * On airings of "Thomas Meets The Queen", this episode was given its UK title, "Paint Pots And Queens". * On airings of "Rusty Helps Peter Sam", this episode is called the UK title, "Trucks!". * On airings of "Gallant Old Engine", this episode has stereo audio. * On airings of "Haunted Henry", the line "Stupid bird!" was removed because Sprout considers "stupid" to be a bad word. * On airings of "Thomas And Stepney", this episode uses the unrestored opening credits. * "Day Of The Diesels", "Gordon And Spencer", "Dream On", "Thomas And The Storyteller", "Salty's Stormy Tale", and "Gordon And The Engineer" use different title cards on Sprout airings. * On airings of "Elizabeth The Vintage Quarry Truck", the UK title "Elizabeth The Vintage Lorry" was used. * In airings of "Gordon And The Engineer", James has a speaking role; he says, "Hurry up, Gordon!", which he does not in other releases of this episode. * "Henry's Good Deeds" was the very last Thomas episode to air on Sprout. It is unknown when will Universal Kids air the Mark Moraghan narration episodes and the Joseph May narration episodes of Thomas & Friends. * In one promo, Oliver was erroneously referred to as "Percy". Gallery 5a3f29a19e0347f84532ff9b733437dc.jpg|Thomas party invitation made by Sprout 3109_255.png|Thomas videos on the Sprout site hqdefault-1.jpg James crashing on Sprout.jpg images.jpeg Thomas angry on Sprout.jpg Percy on Sprout.jpg maxresdefault-4.jpg maxresdefault-5.jpg Thomas_&_Friends_on_Sprout_-_Lady_Hatt's_Birthday_Party.youtube.jpeg Thomas Goes Fishing.jpeg 1_iphone.jpg 152686f316b5ed50f6dc16866c137aa3.jpg Videos Sprout Diner Thomas Club Car Sandwich Thomas and Friends on Sprout - All At Sea Sprout The Birthday Show 6-13-08 PBS kids sprout Thomas and friends Broadcast (1)-0 PBS Kids Sprout|"Stupid bird!" was partially muted in the Sprout airing of "Haunted Henry" Sprout promo Thomas and Friends-0 Thomas & Friends on Sprout - Lady Hatt's Birthday Party PBS Kids Sprout Thomas and friends promo Sprout thomas and friends intro Category:Shows Category:PBS-originated Category:British TV shows Category:American TV shows Category:Based off the Books Category:Mixed-Countries TV shows Category:2005 Category:2006 Category:2007 Category:2008 Category:2009 Category:2010 Category:2011 Category:2012 Category:2013 Category:2014 Category:2015 Category:Shows with Celebrity actors